


A Day to Unwind

by BalefireFlatlands



Series: Sold For Parts [10]
Category: Mad Max (Video Game 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2019-09-19 20:40:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BalefireFlatlands/pseuds/BalefireFlatlands
Summary: Scab becomes a productive member of society and he HATES IT.





	A Day to Unwind

“I look like a tool.”

Jeet sniggered and stood back, appraising Scab, “Better get used to it.”

“I think you look fine.” Blas sat down on Scab’s lap, reaching up to adjust the collar of the light blue polo shirt he was wearing, Jeet’s logo embroidered on the breast pocket.

Scab was unamused, glowering as Blas fussed and smoothed out the shirt. He looked ridiculous. Gangsters with tattoos all over themselves and face stripes were never intended to be seen wearing powder blue collared shirts.

“You wanted something to do. You wanted me to give you a job. So I did.”

“I wanted a job in the warehouse! I wanna steal stuff and shoot things. This is lame soft shit.”

“Well you didn’t specify.” Jeet smugly folded his arms, waiting for Scab to back out, expecting him to not be willing to go through with this.

Grumbling Scab glared at him before turning to wheel out of the room, taking Blas on his lap with him.

“Don’t go too far! You start in an hour.” Jeet snickered under his breath, heading to the kitchen for some breakfast. He couldn’t resist provoking the ever prickly gangster, and the thought of Scab having the only legitimate job out of the three of them was amusing to no end.

Jeet’s warehouse was big, illegal and complicated, and in order to maintain it he needed several legal businesses as a front to launder money through. There were financial maneuvers he was doing that would make any tax auditor’s head spin, and the entire organization was carefully maintained so that neither business affected the other. Jeet was nothing short of a master strategist when it came to his money.

And he had practical reasons for putting Scab where he had, he just wasn’t going to share them because he was enjoying watching him squirm. Scab was a felon, he’d done time, he’d killed people; which made him a liability. Should anyone ever see through Jeet’s elaborate reconstruction of Scab’s identity he needed an iron clad alibi to keep him out of trouble. On top of it all he was suspicious looking, nothing they could do about that, but he was a bit less threatening while in brightly colored polo shirts at a job with a 401k and dental benefits.

All in all he was pretty proud of himself. He had taken a meth-addicted felon and reintegrated him into society as a productive tax payer. Scab didn’t have a lot of marketable skills, at least not legal ones, but what Jeet had in mind for him could be accomplished by just about anyone. Low reward, but low risk as well. A strategy that had worked out well for Jeet in the past.

The only thing left to do was to convince Scab this was worthwhile so he didn’t bail halfway through the day. Or worse, attack his coworkers out of boredom and his constant need to prove himself. Fortunately Blas had done a lot of that already - sitting in Scab’s lap and talking about what they could do to celebrate his first day of work.

“Alright you two, get off each other. We all gotta go to work. You can get handsy later.” Jeet hid a smile as he said it, trying to ignore the weird feeling of contentment somewhere deep inside his chest.

—

Scab sullenly sat in the back of the store, half-heartedly sorting packages into various bins. He had a notepad in front of him with instructions in the big blocky letters of someone who was only partially literate. This was boring as hell. He could listen to music and had some energy drinks which was better than the one other real job he’d had at a convenience store where he wasn’t allowed to do shit. But he found himself staring at the clock waiting for it to be lunch and he could have sworn it had been 11:27 for the past three hours at least.

On top of being mind numbing, at ten dollars an hour he’d be able to afford to buy a car like the one he’d had back with the gang in about seven years. And then be able to afford to modify it so he could drive it in another five. He let his head hit the table in front of him with a thunk, he wasn’t going to survive a full shift of this nonsense let alone twelve years. His misery was interrupted by noise behind him and he bolted up, he wasn’t gonna be caught moping on the job. Too much pride for that.

“How’s your first day? I brought you lunch.” Grinning big, Blas sauntered through the swinging door to the back and settled down next to Scab putting two take-out containers on the table.

“Fucking boring.” Scab shoved the mail away from him and popped open the lid off the container, digging into a pile of fried rice. “Its just sorting shit into piles. Any loser could do this.”

Blas bit into a potsticker, glancing around at the back room of Jeet’s packaging store. “Its better than sitting at home right? We can trade, I can sort mail and you can do my job.”

“What are you doing today?”

Blas spun round on his chair, reaching for a soda to slurp through a straw before responding, “Extracting codeine from acetaminophen tablets.”

Scab looked away, not wanting to admit he barely understood what it was that Blas did or how he did it. He mumbled under his breath, “I’ll take the mail.”

“And you look cute in those shirts.”

Scab blinked before grinning and reaching an arm out to drag Blas into his lap. “Oh yeah?”

With a squeak of protest the smaller man fell into Scab’s lap, squirming and protesting, “You’re at work Scab!”

“I don’t care.”

—

“Do you feel like a real adult yet?”

There was a groan from Scab, face-planted into the dining table with his arms over his head, in a light orange shirt that made him feel like a scoop of sherbet.

“You worked a full two weeks, opened a bank account, and got a paycheck. That’s pretty good for a dead guy.”

“I can’t wait to go to the store and take a really long time writing a check.” Scab sounded less than thrilled, refusing to move and hating life.

While Jeet was snickering, Blas went over to wrap his arms around him. There was money to spend and Scab had something to do all day, Blas honestly didn’t understand what the problem was, but he assumed that hugs would fix it. “You can buy yourself a new leather jacket that isn’t full of holes. Or we could go out to dinner. This is a good thing.”

Scab moaned into his arms before turning to look over at Blas. “I feel like a loser. I’ve become all that I hate.”

Rolling his eyes Jeet sat across from him with a beer, “That’d be if you became a cop. You just have a job Scab, it’s not that bad.”

Agreeing, Blas rubbed at Scab’s shaved scalp, “It’s not bad at all. I wanna be legit too. I don’t get a paycheck.”

Scab’s eyes widened in surprise, “You don’t get a paycheck?” and then over towards Jeet accusingly, “You’re not paying him?”

Jeet glared right back. “Of course I’m paying him, he just doesn’t get a paycheck. He’s not a citizen and I don’t know how to forge a work visa and immigration papers. It’s complicated.” He reached up to rub his eyes, resting his elbows on the table. “I’m not holding him hostage, he’s not a slave. And he has money, he keeps buying those five hundred dollar blankets laying everywhere.”

Blas wriggled into Scab’s lap, wrapping his arms around the man’s neck. He squinted at Jeet retaliating with, “They’re not blankets, they’re down comforters. And you sleep under them too.”

“Whatever. They’re expensive blankets. I paid less for my car.”

Snorting, Scab adjusted Blas to sit comfortably in his lap before replying, “Your car is a piece of shit. And it’s going to explode if you keep driving it with that cracked cylinder.”

“It hasn’t yet.” Jeet downed his beer, getting up to grab another one, “And I’m getting a new one anyway.” He mumbled something else, sticking his head in the fridge.

Blas pulled away from where he was nuzzled into Scab’s neck, “You’re gonna get the van?”

“Wait, what’s happening? What van?”

Jeet ignored Scab glaring at both of them and stomping down the hall to his office.

“Jeet’s been looking at vans. So you’ll fit in them instead of us wedging you in the back of the car.” Blas grudgingly dragged himself off of Scab’s very warm lap, stretching and heading after Jeet. “He’s all cranky because it’s expensive.”

Still at the table Scab stared down the hall after them, listening as Jeet started yelling, interspersed with Blas’ softer voice, then Blas came back to the living room with some pamphlets under his arm, sinking down on the couch and patting the cushion next to him. “He’s being a brat, but come look at the pictures with me!”

Very confused by all this, Scab wheeled over to the couch, dragging himself over the arm and onto the couch itself, rewarded instantly by Blas snuggling against his side. “Why’s the boss so mad?”

Blas shook his head, sorting out the glossy papers, “You know Jeet, doesn’t like spending money. He’ll like it once he has it though, his car is falling apart.” Blas pinned one side of the pamphlet down with his stump of an arm, flipping the page open to show several larger vans with modern features and plenty of space inside.

“He’s gonna get one of these?” Scab leaned forward to look at the spread featuring cheerful people loading up a van with groceries. “These are huge. Do we .. wait. Is this a Mercedes? He got upset because we bought name brand peanut butter and he’s gonna buy a Mercedes?”

“They have the best vans. Here, look.” Blas flipped a few pages, showing some available options. “We can get you a ramp. Or this motorized elevator thing.”

Scab froze, staring down at the images. He didn’t know what to say, or how to react. “He’s… Gonna get that? Because of me? Blas, he can’t do that. I’m not worth it.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Cuz I’m broken. You guys haven’t known me that long, and you’re buying me all this stuff? This is really expensive.”

“I’m very aware of how much it costs.” Jeet’s voice startled both of them, standing behind the couch with his arms folded as he watched them with narrowed eyes. “You better suck it up because we’re going to look at them tomorrow.”

“Boss, this is… How’m I supposed to make this up to you?”

Jeet actually looked surprised for once, dropping his characteristic glower as he came around the couch to sit next to Scab, “What do you mean ‘make it up to me’?”

“Pay you back. Become worthy. And with all this,” He waved his arm to encompass everything surrounding them. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Do you honestly think I’m trying to buy your loyalty?”

Scab blinked at him, thoroughly confused. “Why else would you do this?”

Sighing, Jeet looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds before getting up, “You really don’t get it do you?”

“No?” Scab frantically looked between Blas and Jeet, brain kicking into high gear to try and figure out what was happening.

Coming to his rescue, Blas wrapped his arms around him, pulling Scab down into his lap, “He’s doing it because he likes you. I like you too.”

Awkwardly slumping onto Blas he twisted to look over at Jeet, “You don’t want anything out of me?”

With a shake of his head Jeet wandered back to his office. He didn’t want to get into this right now, and he had such trouble understanding how Scab’s brain worked at the best of times. Sure he wasn’t any good with emotions and he knew it, but Scab really didn’t get that he kept him around because he liked him? Not because of any obligation, not because he wanted Scab to do things for him. Just because he wanted him in his life.

Blas understood though. Shifting on the couch he dragged Scab on top of his skinny frame. Ready to be his mattress for a little while. “I don’t want anything out of you.” He squirmed into a more comfortable position to support Scab’s weight. “I just like having you here.”

“You guys are weird.”

“Mmhmm. And you love it.”

“I guess.” Scab snuffled into Blas’ neck, sighing happily and relaxing onto the scrawny body beneath him. 

—

Blas pushed the button on the inside of the door and smiled as Scab was slowly raised up to the level of the van floor. “I think this is better than the ramp. Takes up less room too.”

Crankiness ramped up to eleven, Jeet sat behind the wheel, half-heartedly listening to the salesperson’s spiel about various options they could add on as well. This thing cost a fortune, he could buy about forty-five normal cars instead of this. But as Scab easily rolled into the van and situated himself next to the window, he had to admit it might be worth it.

While Scab buckled himself into place, Blas poked at the various buttons and dials in the ceiling, flipping down a tv screen and plopping onto the couch-like seat in the back. “I like this.”

“That couch folds flat into a queen sized bed.”

Blas bounced on it happily, “So we could go camping with this?”

The salesperson looked simultaneously horrified and offended.

But Jeet tilted his head thoughtfully, getting up to go look at the space in the back, mentally calculating storage and sleeping arrangements. “Don’t see why not.”

Granted he’d feel like a fool driving a Mercedes down a dirt road to a camping spot, but it was his car; he could do with it what he wanted. “Get in a seat, let’s take this monstrosity for a drive.”

Blas went to go sit next to Scab, making sure he was properly strapped in and not about to roll away. The van was more luxurious than anything he’d ever been in, big plush seats and plenty of leg room and once Jeet began driving it had an incredibly smooth ride as well.

The salesperson kept on explaining expensive features as Jeet grumpily gave one word answers while merging onto the freeway. He hated to admit that he liked this thing, it was enormous, but it was easy to drive, plenty of visibility and very comfortable. He knew the only reason they were being so tolerant of him, and even letting him take a test drive, was because they’d checked his bank account and realized he could buy everything on the lot if he wanted to. Having money he never spent had some benefits. Made people take him seriously.

Not that he was planning on paying sticker price for it. As he parked back in the lot he finally turned to acknowledge the salesperson next to him, something like a hint of a smile on his face. “Not bad. Let’s see what we can do about this price.”

Oh how he loved to haggle.

—

Scab looked very unsure as the lift lowered him down into the stomped out dirt area of a campsite. Dust poofed out from under his wheels as he cautiously made his way over to where Blas was happily collecting their barbecue supplies and getting the firepit ready. Looking unimpressed, he eyed the droopy trees and muddy river nearby, “We have a firepit and a lake in our backyard. I don’t get it.”

Jeet stomped past with their folding chairs and a fishing rod under his arm. “The lake don’t have fish.”

“Our backyard has a paved path to the water,” Scab grumbled as he tried to navigate around the various sticks and rocks between him and Blas.

“My backyard,” yelled from somewhere amongst the trees down by the water.

Having finished organizing the stones onto a tidy ring, Blas came over to Scab to push him closer, avoiding the mud puddles. “This’ll be fun! I’ve never been camping before.”

“It’s not really camping if we’re sleeping in a Mercedes.” Scab watched with growing trepidation as Jeet continued to unload things from the back of the van, a few beach towels and some inflatable tubes going down to the water as well.

“Why are you being so grumpy? It’s a three day weekend! We’re gonna relax and have fun.” As he said it Blas narrowed his eyes at Jeet, fully intending to make sure he relaxed as well. Ignoring Scab’s mutterings he went to the van to pull out a pair of black surf shorts with a barbed wire pattern in silver. “Need help changing?”

“No. Do I gotta?”

“You want to go in the water in your jeans?”

“I don’t wanna go in the water at all.”

Coming up behind them Jeet reached for his own shorts, hopping on one foot to get out of his ratty cargo pants. “Are you scared?”

“No!”

Blas tossed the shorts to Scab. “Scared of what?”

“I’m not scared of nothin’. Shut up.” Scab concentrated on pulling his pants off so he could get into the shorts, trying to pretend both of them had disappeared.

“Do you know how to swim?”

Scab hesitated, toying with the tie on his shorts before continuing quietly, “I did.”

The silence grew awkward as Blas looked at the ground, suddenly understanding and feeling foolish for not considering it before. Jeet sighed and went back to the bank of the slow moving river to make sure their chairs were all set up and to see if his rod had gotten a bite. Nothing yet.

“Alright, come on.” Jeet returned to watch Blas silently helping Scab into his shorts. He carefully pushed him to the edge of the camping space, gathering the very tense gangster into his arms and heading towards the water. “Calm down.”

“I’m not scared!” Scab screeched as he clung to Jeet white knuckled.

“Do you wanna go in the water or do you wanna sit on the lounger?”

Scab huffed out a few breaths, eyes flicking between the water where Blas had an inflatable tube patterned like a giant doughnut, and the lounger sitting on the safety of the shore. Taking a deep breath he calmed himself, “Water.”

Blas steadied a floating foam cushion as Jeet placed Scab in the middle of it, making sure it wasn’t going to capsize under his weight. “We tied this to that tree so you can’t float away.” He gave Scab a gentle push, wading in after him as the rope tightened and held him a few feet from shore.

Grunting Scab stayed completely still, barely breathing in an effort to not tip over into the water. “Told ya I wasn’t scared.”

Jeet skimmed his hand across the water, splashing Scab full in the face. Unthinkingly Scab tried to retaliate and nearly fell off the cushion, catching himself at the last moment with a yelp, eyes wide and terrified.

Instantly Jeet latched onto him making sure he didn’t tumble into the water. “I’m not gonna let you drown. It’s okay.” He rubbed his back, feeling the fear in the twitching of Scab’s muscles.

“Won’t he just float if he falls in the water?”

“I dunno.” Jeet looked down at Scab in his arms. “Wanna try?”

“I think I’ll sink. I won’t be able to turn over.”

Jeet wedged his arms beneath Scab, picking him up off the cushion to set him in the water. He kept close, ready to grab him again should he start to flounder.

Scab spread his arms out, trying to take up as much space as possible. As expected his legs splayed in different directions and sunk beneath the surface, but his shoulders stayed out of the water. “Am I hitting the bottom?”

“No. Your legs aren’t that far underwater, they’re kinda floating. We probably should have tied them together.”

“Flip me over.”

Jeet paused, “You sure?”

“Just do it.”

Standing by in case of trouble, Jeet wrapped his arms around Scab shoulders and Blas held onto his feet as they awkwardly rolled him onto his stomach. Scab splashed, keeping his head above water and paddling like a dog. But he didn’t drown immediately, which was reassuring. They manhandled him back onto the cushion, letting him float on his own as Jeet affectionately rubbed his head before heading back to tend his fishing rod.

Grinning triumphantly at having gotten Scab into the water, Blas took a diving leap and landed on his doughnut. Paddling out into the river he let the gentle current carry him away before kicking his feet and splashing back over to Scab. He spun on the tube smiling happily and reaching over to pull himself against Scab.

Scab tensed up as the cushion tilted, but reached out an arm to pull Blas closer. This was worth it if a shirtless, wet Blas was going to hug all over him. Blas leaned in for a kiss before swimming back out into the river, Jeet yelling at him to stop scaring away the fish.

It was undeniably peaceful, minus Jeet’s complaining. A cool breeze had sprung off, causing the trees to sway gently and a few leaves dropped down into the water, tiny ripples cascading out to be swept away in the current. One fell on Scab’s stomach and he opened one eye to glare at it before flicking it into the water. The bobbing of the cushion was lulling him to sleep, and the fears of drowning were melting away as the floating rectangle he was laying on swayed in the river, rope holding it in place so he didn’t drift downstream.

Blas was entertaining himself by slowly swimming alongside a small turtle that was crossing the river when Jeet suddenly stood up and grabbed the fishing rod from the stick it was leaning against. “Did you catch something?”

“Maybe.”

He reeled it in a little, tilting the rod to the side and sharply pulling on it. Whatever it was tugged back on the line, so he probably hadn’t caught a boot or a stick. Smiling he continued to draw in the line as a big, silvery fish breached the surface and flopped around before diving back down and trying to escape the hook it had swallowed. Scooping a net under it he surveyed his prize, a shimmery rainbow trout angrily thrashing around; very displeased about being dumped into a bucket.

Shaking the water off him, Blas climbed off his doughnut to look in the bucket, “So shine. Is this dinner?”

“He will be if I catch a few more. And not these little guys I keep hooking.” He frowned as he reached out to grab his hook and pry off a tiny, wriggling fish to hand to Blas.

“It has whiskers.” Blas waded back into the river, gently releasing it and watching it dart away in a cloud of muddy water.

“Catfish. Too small to eat though.”

Jeet caught a few more fish under the legal limit, one that might have been that same catfish again, before he caught another two trout. He carried the bucket over to their campfire before going to reel in Scab. Jeet snickered as he pulled him close, the bottom half of Scab’s legs that had been unprotected by the shade of the tree were bright red and sunburnt, but he was sound asleep, snoring away. He ignored the injured puppy-dog look Scab gave once woken up, sliding his hands beneath him to carry him back to shore.

Scab had other ideas, dragging Jeet down to him and nearly capsizing the lounger he was on. Sputtering, Jeet recovered splashing him in the face and resisting the urge to dunk him.

“Oh now you’re okay with being in the water?”

“I guess.”

Jeet shoved at the cushion, eyeing him as he floated out of reach. “You know I ain’t gonna let you drown right?”

The smirking playful expression on Scab’s face was instantly replaced with something a lot more unsure. “I uh…. Well.. I mean…”

Jeet pulled him back. “Why are you so convinced I’m gonna murder you if you look at me wrong?”

Scab shrugged, looking elsewhere, “I dunno Boss.”

He didn’t want to delve into this, not here. Well honestly, not ever, anywhere. Instead he silently picked Scab up, carrying him to the lounger by the fire that Blas was setting up. It hurt a bit to think that Scab was convinced he’d be tossed out as soon as he wasn’t useful, and Jeet had no idea what he had to do to get Scab to see that wasn’t the case. Scab just had some strange views of the world and there was going to be a lot of work involved to change his mind.

He wanted to say something, tell Scab that he wasn’t disposable, but Jeet just didn’t have the vocabulary to express his emotions like that. It had never been a topic he’d had to discuss. Instead he gestured to Scab’s legs as he went to the van so he didn’t have to look at him, “You boiled like a lobster.”

Leaning forward Scab poked his feet and winced. “You gonna coat me in drawn butter?”

“Coat you in something anyway. Can you feel that?”

“On my feet, yeah.” He twisted his feet and wriggled his toes, his range of motion below his ankles much better than it had been a few months ago. “You’d be the same if you came out from under that tree.”

Rubbing the damaged side of his head and neck Jeet turned to get the rest of his stuff from the river, “I’m burnt enough, thanks.”

The fish splashed around in their bucket as Blas sat on his chair with it in his lap, watching them wriggle. He was a few shades darker, having baked to a nice golden color rather than burning like Scab. “You guys need sunscreen.”

“A little late for that now.” Scab frowned, digging around in their cooler of supplies for his knife and a cutting board. “But you can rub me with lotion to make it better.”

Blas threw one of the fish at him.

—

“Told you the moon roof was worth it.” Blas wriggled happily, squished between Scab and Jeet on the bed in the back of the van. Above them was a huge glass panel through which they could see the stars twinkling and tree branches waving in the moonlight.

“Yeah, I guess.” Reluctant to admit anything when it came to spending money, Jeet instead turned to nibble at Blas’ ear. Enjoying the view of the half naked man on top of him significantly more than some dots in the sky.

Warm and drowsy, Scab sleepily wrapped his arms around Blas, pulling him off Jeet and onto him like a blanket.

With a squawk at being dragged, Blas squirmed and dug all his bony bits into Scab’s chest. He struggled to get up as Jeet continued the assault, biting down his neck and shifting to dig his fingers into Blas’ hip to angle him closer. An exasperated sigh escaped him as he managed to get free, shoving a half-asleep Scab at Jeet and settling down at the edge of the bed where he could still see the stars.

Woken suddenly, Scab immediately seized the opportunity, grinning and dragging Jeet down to himself and starting to kiss all over his exposed skin. Needing constant validation he soaked up any attention either of them gave, even if it was negative. But Jeet was actually in a good mood, calm and relaxed, or as much as he could get anyway, and he greedily pulled Scab closer.

On the bed nearby Blas tried to ignore what was going on next to him, watching the sky and trying to make shapes out of the unfamiliar constellations. One looked like their cat Remington, another might be a lumpy horse or maybe a rhino. The bed bounced a little and he looked over, smirking as the van rocked, gasps and snarls and needy whines escaping out the open windows. It was lucky they were in an area without any other campers or someone would have been pounding on the door soon.

He waited till they were sprawled out and panting before he crawled back to the center of the bed, wedged between two sweaty bodies and happily drowning in the soft sounds they were making. Jeet wrapped his arms around Blas as Scab nuzzled into his damaged side and closed his eyes. Finally he looked up at the view that Blas was so impressed with.

Yeah, it was nice.

But then again, looking over at the two of them, there were other views he liked a whole lot better.


End file.
